Sunday, December 30, 2012

Diablo 3 has been out for about half a year now. PVP has always been a big part of the Diablo series and it seams like it just took a big blow. Blizzard is scrapping team death match altogether but will implement dueling in patch 1.0.7 in early 2013.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Very cool mod, use Siri on your iPhone to get a Rasperberry Pi to open your garage door. Obviously there will be a bit of work ahead of you if you decide to go through with it, but it looks like a fun project. Want to know how to make Siri and a Raspberry Pi get along?

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Not everyone has a fireplace to sit by, and it is pretty nice to do around the holiday season. So this is for all you retro 80`s gamers out there that remember the golden age of gaming, you know Atari, Intellivision, Colecovison, Bally Arcade, Nintendo, Commadore 64, and piles of others I`m missing on this list.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Acer is making a $99 Android tablet. This sounds great right? The problem is, it will probably never be launched in the US. The Iconia B1 as it is called is geared toward emerging markets such as China and India not North America and Europe.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Until recently Blizzard has limited beta spots to StarCraft II: Heart Of The Swarm. That`s going to change, anyone who pre-ordered the boxed version of the expansion before December 18th will receive a beta key and be able to play in the near future.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

This major update to the TEC-Award Nominated iOS synthesizer is a free update for existing Animoog users and includes many user requested features and product enhancements, such as: accelerometer integration which gives Animoog owners the ability to tilt their iPad in any direction as an interactive 3D modulation source; note hold and scale lock, and tools for advanced users like, Load/Save MIDI CC maps, Audiocopy/Audiopaste integration and support for the new Audiobus platform.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

RIM has apparently settled on a name for their new BlackBerry flagship phone. Originally called the London and the L-series (probably an internal RIM naming scheme) The new touchscreen smartphone will be called the "BlackBerry Z10". Next on the list will be the more traditional RIM offering, a phone with a hardware keyboard called the "BlackBerry X10".

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Raspberry Pi the credit card sized single board computer is one popular DIY project. Even though the specs are nothing to write home about, the price is - around $25. Well, now the fine folks behind this do-it-yourslef project have launched an app store.

This one will be interesting to follow. Canadian ISP Teksavvy will in court Monday trying to defend the identity of their subscribers after American film studio Voltage Pictures served them will a list of thousands of IP addresses used to download the film "The Hurt Locker"

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Everyone knows what happens when you shut your computer down, namely everything in RAM goes away. Everspin wants to change that they`ve just introduces a technology they call ST-MRAM or Spin-Torque MRAM built like a DDR3 memory module.

This is a great instructional article for those using Microsoft`s Windows 8 operating system. Even though it has it`s pitfalls it`s still useful to have or least you`ll wish you used it if things go wrong with your PC.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Google has announced that as of January 30th 2013 is shutting down services relating to exchange. Changes begin January 4th when the Google starts shutting down several features in its Calendar service, including creating and checking appointments and calendar through text messaging. Google will also be discontinuing support for its Sync service, this allows Gmail, Calendar and Contacts to access through Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol.

Turbine is bringing back Asheron`s Call 2, launched in 2002 and shutdown in 2005 it was the sequel to the still going Asheron`s Call. If you`ve ever played or wanted to play Asheron`s Call 2 now`s your chance, but only if you are a current subscriber to Asheron`s Call.

Still a rumour until we actually see it but nonetheless this is an interesting article to read. Rumours have been thrown around for years now that Apple is secretly (or not so secretly) working on it`s vision of television.
businessinsider reports:

Writer Marc Andreessen: "He warned that Apple is a "vault," so no one really knows what's happening inside the company. That said, he says the rumors about an Apple television are strong, and it's one of those poorly kept Valley secrets.
He doesn't know what the Apple TV will look like, but he knows this: Once it comes out, everyone else will scramble to copy it."

well he does have some compelling credentials, but people have been wrong before, i guess we`ll know in 2014

Friday, December 14, 2012

"The keyboard for BlackBerry 10 is designed to be fast and intuitive. It's built with innovative technology that makes typing on BlackBerry 10 easy -- even with one hand. Vivek Bhardwaj demos in key word prediction, multi-language support and his new favorite feature a space bar that can automatically correct misses."

Chalk this up as rumour but it does present an interesting scenario. Apple and Samsung don`t get along, period. Apple is slowly but surely moving away from Samsung for fabricating parts (such as the "A" line of mobile CPUs) and is already in negotiation with Taiwanese firm TSMC to fabricate processors. But could there be a yet another deal in the works? Possibly with GlobalFoundries? After all, AMD has just cut orders and having Apple as a client would be a nice feather in their cap.

It`s been a while, and some of you had to put up with the mapping application Apple forced on you in the IOS 6 update, but now you can have your Google maps back. Google has just released it`s mapping app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You`l need IOS 5.1 or higher.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

AMD is planning to retiring some older Zambezi based CPUs in favour of the new Vishera core parts in Q2 2013. Gone will be the FX 8150 eight core, FX 6200 six core and FX 4170 quad core chips in the first quarter followed by The AMD FX 8120 eight core and the FX 6100 six core CPU.

One Nexus 10 owner from Singapore has discovered a bug in his system, literally an ant crawling between the LCD and the glass panel. Some Nexus 10 owners have had build quality issues but this one`s new.

Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn has got a walk through video showcasing the upcoming BlackBerry 10 L_Series smartphone. Even though the commentary is in Vietnamese you can clearly get an idea of the UI and feature set of this upcoming phone from RIM. The phone appears to have NFC, a microSD card slot and a removable 1,800 mAh battery.

Despite Samsung`s teaser video which you can watch here which leaves a lot to the imagination Samsung will not be showcasing the Galaxy S4 at CES. It seems Samsung has chosen to instead concentrate on televisions and other electronic products.

After a bit of a false start last week Baldur`s Gate: Enhanced Edition has finally hit the App Store. Featuring over 80 hours of gameplay and 3 new playable characters and a new adventure called The Black Pits it promises to be quite the Holiday title for the iPad. You`ll need IOS 6 and it looks like the iPad 1 won`t be included in the compatibility list.

RIM is getting serious on device security. They are taking some extra precautions with the upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphone when it comes to accessing the device. Have a look at 106 banned passwords you will absolutely NOT be able to use once Blackberry OS 10 launches:

Intel`s been rumoured to be taking steps toward soldering on it`s CPU on the mother board, AMD has and ARM teaming up has left some people thinking is there a future for the socketed CPU? Well AMD has understood this need and has reaffirmed it`s commitment to the socketed CPU.

AMD has just released some new low power piledriver based Opteron processors for the entry level market. The Opteron 4300 and 3300 range from 4 cores to 8 cores and use the same C32 socket as the previous generation. The Opteron 3300 is rather interesting as this CPU has an AM3+ socket and is priced rather competitively, starting at $99 for the Opteron 3250HE with 4 cores.

More trouble for Samsung as Swedish telecom company Ericsson is seeking an import ban on Samsung products due to patent infringement. The two companies could not come to a licensing agreement after negotiations broke down.

Interested in playing Crysis 3 in February 2013 when it launches? Well you may need to do a bit of upgrading considering some of the hardware requirements are looking pretty steep! Note you WILL need a DX11 capable card.
Here are the requirements:

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Flash memory is great. Its stable, its fast but it has some short comings, one of the biggest being relatively short read-write cycles that lead to flash memory wearing out. But Taiwanese firm Macronix have found a way to drastically increase its lifespan, potentially into the 100 million cycles range. The secret, blasting the modules with extreme heat at very specific times.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

After weeks on the run for allegedly murdering neighbour Gregory Faull, anti virus pioneer John McAffee has been captured on the Mexico-Belize border. Be prepared for weeks of unreleased content on his site.

Blizzard Entertainment has registered the ProjectBlackstone.com domain name a couple of days ago. What is Project Blackstone and how it relates to Blizzard`s next MMO title "Titan" is unclear, are they one and the same? is this just a domain buy up as a defensive measure? I got nothing for you. What I do have is the WHOIS as it relates to Project Blackstone:

New Free-to-Play Launch Trailer: A Galaxy of Possibilities
The Free-to-Play option is now live! Step into the Star Wars™ universe and play a role in the ongoing battle as you start your own personal saga. Play now as a Jedi, a Sith, a Bounty Hunter or as one of many other iconic Star Wars roles up to Level 50 for free. Watch “A Galaxy of Possibilities” and see the action-packed adventure that awaits you in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™!

A bit irony here, even though Apple`s iPhone and iPad lines are made in China there has not been an official carrier that sells them. This changes December 7 when the wi-fi version of the iPad mini goes on sale and the iPhone 5 launches December 14th.

Printers made by Samsung have a hardcoded backdoor account in their firmware, that could allow attackers to change their configuration, read network status and information and access sensitive user information.

This is a collection for the 2012 Siggraph Asia conference. If this is the future of computer graphics I must see it thoroughly blurs the lines between virtual and actual realities. Bring on the games!

not sure who to quote but here goes: "Go outside, the graphics are amazing!" well maybe not anymore.

Adobe is set to release Photoshop CS6 December 11th with Retina Display support. Adobe`s "Create Now Live" has a video that appears to show a Retina display MacBook Pro running Photoshop CS6, great news for all you graphic designers out there.

More bad news for RIM, Nokia has won a patent dispute against RIM regarding WLAN technolgies in Sweden today. What does this potentially mean for you? If RIM and Nokia can`t come up with a royalty agreement this may mean a device ban on RIM`s part.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Just in time for Christmas Google has increased Gmail attachment size limits to 10GB and is also integrating Google Drive with Gmail, that`s 400 times the current limit of 25MB.
To attach 10GB files to your emails, just click the Drive icon instead of the paperclip icon and choose your file to upload, simple.

According to Microsoft Windows 8 isn`t doing too bad after all. Microsoft is claiming that since release one month ago Windows 8 has sold 40 million licenses. Despite the fact some reviewers and users had issues with Microsoft`s newest Operating system. Windows 8 is doing so well that apparently it`s outpaced Windows 7 upgrades.

Nintendo has just announced a shrunk down Wii console named the Wii mini. This Wii will be black with a red border and comes with the wii-mote and a nunchuk, both in red. Another distinguishing feature (or lack of) the Wii mini loses GameCube support and is designed to strictly play disc based games. Nintendo plans to release the Wii mini in Canada December 7th.

Bestbuy has already posted box images and a pre-order page on it`s Canadian site here

Here we have a video of Google`s Nexus 4 connecting to LTE but only on LTE band 4, which uses the 1700MHz and 2100MHz frequencies. Canadian carriers Telus, Rogers and Bell all use LTE band 4. This video shows the Nexus 4 running on Canadian network Rogers LTE. No word yet if other countries have had any success getting this to work.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Theregister is reporting that Microsoft has an Apple TV-style set-top box in its labs, it is rumoured to be an inexpensive Windows 8 based unit designed to provide access to Xbox Live entertainment services along with casual gaming.

The future is now! The Valeo app integrates with the Park4U system found on many contemporary car models from Lincoln, Ford, Audi, and Volkswagen, this lets you control the acceleration and brake of your car remotely.

So this Nokia Lumia is a bit chunky. You want to know why? it`s a tough phone, a VERY tough phone, tough enough to survive being run over by a car amongst other things. To be realistic there is a limit to it`s toughness but one thing`s for sure, it will most likely survive the average person`s day to day bumps and drops.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

searchenginewatch is reporting that Google is really a force to be reckoned with in regards to search.

"In October, Google smashed its own search engine market share record, accounting for 66.9 percent of all searches conducted in the U.S., comScore reported. Microsoft’s Bing also had a record month, hitting a less spectacular though still noteworthy 16 percent share.

Extremetech reports that
"The world’s oldest, original, still-working digital computer has been unveiled at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley Park, the home of the United Kingdom’s Second World War encryption and codebreaking efforts, where, among other luminaries, Alan Turing and co famously broke the German Enigma cipher.

"Further confirming our suspicions that Windows 8 is off to a slow start, a Newegg senior vice president has said that sales of Windows 8 have been “slow going.” Likewise, sales of hardware with Windows 8 pre-installed has been “slow and steady.”

I`m sure we can all see you where this is going, even though the iPad mini is pretty robust we`re talking mini gun here. For those of you unfamiliar with this kind of firearm think over 3000 rounds per minute, that`s some serious shredding.

IOS users looking for something to use other than the Maps application in IOS 6 can now try Nokia`s solution called HERE Maps. It has some interesting features such as live traffic information, public transportation data, voice-guided walking navigation and more.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Applescoop has heard that the next version of OSX 10.9 will be named "Lynx"

"This report comes from a reliable source who claims to have talked to someone from inside the walls of Apple. This source claimed that he saw some internal papers that seem to be finalizing the name of the operating system, although the same source couldn’t say when Apple would be finalizing its name and announcing it to the public. We here at AppleScoop think it’ll be during the 2013 annual WWDC."

Monday, November 12, 2012

Gizmodo is reporting the strange tail of John Mcafee of anti-virus software fame Mcafee just gets stranger. Now it seams he`s apparently on the run from a murder charge in Belize. According to Marco Vidal, head of Belize`s police force Gang Suppression Unit, John McAfee is a prime suspect in the murder of American builder Gregory Faull, who was gunned down Saturday night at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye.

Friday, November 9, 2012

Intel has just released it`s new Itanium CPU for the server market. Itanium packs 3.1 billion transistors along with chip 54 MB of on die memory, supports up to 2 TB of low voltage DIMMs in a four socket configuration. The power band is also slightly improved. The 9500 series is clocked from 1.73 GHz to 2.53 GHz and rated at 130 watts to 170 watts.

Friday, November 2, 2012

This one`s from Android Authority. Yup, another drop test, this time they tried it by dropping both the iPad mini and Nexus 7 on their edges, face down and on their backs. The iPad mini`s screen did shatter, but the Nexus 7 took a beating and did`nt fare so well.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

VG24 has an interesting tidbit regarding the next Playstation. They are reporting that development kits for Sony’s PlayStation 4 code-named “Orbis”) have been sent out to developers as a "modified PC". This new Playstation seams to have some interesting internals going on.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Primatelabs has performed some benchmarks on the new fourth generation iPad. They`ve found that the new iPad with Apple`s A6X is twice as fast as the previous generation iPad 3 with the A5X and 10% faster than the iPhone 5.

"Scott Forstall, a long-time lieutenant of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, was asked to leave following years of friction with other top executives and his recent refusal to take responsibility for the mishandling of the Apple's much-criticized mapping software, people familiar with the situation said.

Monday, October 29, 2012

AMD has revealed that it is teaming up with ARM to develop processors for the server market.

This from ZDNet:

"AMD will transform the computing data center environment today," said AMD CEO and president Rory Read during a press conference on Monday afternoon, asserting that AMD will be the first company to offer both 64-bit ARM and x86 server processors.

There`s no denying it, Windows 8 is different, big departure from XP, Vista and Windows 7, actually it`s pretty different from any PC interface that's out there. Is that good? Is that bad?, well that`s up to you to decide.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Microsoft has announced the availability of its brand new operating system, Windows 8. Windows 8 is available starting at just $39.99 for a limited time and upgrades from Windows 7 start at just $14.99.
Available October 26.

Engadget has a video review of the new Surface RT tablet from Microsoft. Buyers should be aware that this is the ARM version of the Surface running the ARM version of Windows 8. Your x86 applications will not work on this at all. Besides that I hope developers embrace it and release some great applications for this platform.

Apple has just finished their scheduled event where everyone and their brother was expecting the iPad mini. Not only was the iPad mini released but we also got a new Mac mini, a new very thin Macbook Air like 13" Macbook Pro with a retina display, sticking with the thin theme the new iMac`s edge is only 5mm thick and has a new hybrid flash drive option called "Fusion Drive". An unexpected surprise today is the unveiling of the new iPad with a new processor, Apple`s A6X, faster and with the new lightning port. More details below:

Sunday, October 21, 2012

"AMD Piledriver microarchitecture was officially launched in May, but only now AMD releases desktop and server products, based on it. Entry-level and mid-cass "Piledriver" APUs were introduced on October 2nd, and high-end FX parts will be available on October 23.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Microsoft`s entry level Surface RT tablet comes with 32GB of storage on board. Problem is the after Windows 8, the Office suite and a couple more preinstalled apps are installed on it that figure drops to around 20GB of free space. This according to Microsoft Surface test manager Ricardo Lopez who was part of an "Ask me anything" session on Reddit.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 16, 2012 — Microsoft Corp. today released new details about its highly anticipated Microsoft Surface, a tablet PC designed to be the ultimate stage for Windows. In addition to pricing and market availability, the company announced a special limited-quantity pre-order for Surface with Windows RT available 9 a.m. PDT. Those who want to learn more or pre-order can visit http://www.Surface.com.

Looks like we finally know the pricing details for the Microsoft Surface RT tablets. The 32GB Surface RT tablet will start at $499 without a Touch Cover keyboard and $599 with the Touch Cover keyboard included.

Monday, October 15, 2012

"Introducing Xbox Music: The Ultimate All-in-One Music Service Featuring Free Streaming on Windows 8 and Windows RT Tablets and PCs

Oct. 14, 2012

Enjoy your favorite music from a 30 million-song global catalog powered by the one service that integrates your music experiences across your tablet, PC, phone and TV. All the music you love, every way you want it.

If true this Apple event on October 23rd could be packed with lots of goodies.

This from macrumors:

"The redesigned iMac is said to be considerably thinner than the current form factor, with the machine's thickness almost impossible to gauge when viewed from the side. The curved rear shell is also said to appear more like a water droplet than the squared-off design seen in the current model.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

"Apple Inc will host an event on October 23 where it is expected to unveil a smaller iPad that will take on the less expensive devices offered by Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Microsoft has announced today that consumers can now reserve an upgrade copy of Windows 8 Pro from certain retailers. Windows 8 Pro upgrade will be available for $69.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot and the Microsoft Store. Microsoft states that customers can to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro online with Microsoft’s Upgrade Assistant for only $39.99 online and at retail locations until January 31st 2013.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Keeping with the Apple chip design theme today it seams that Apple has hired chip design luminary Jim Mergard, a 16 year AMD veteran who was vice president and chief engineer at AMD before he left for Samsung.

Microsoft is about to make a fundamental shift in it`s branding strategy. As we all know in the past Microsoft has been content primarily selling licenses to its products to OEMs. But according to industry insider Eldar Murtazin that`s about to change, and drastically.

Monday, October 8, 2012

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee has decided that Chinese telco equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE are a potential threat to national security. The report is based on an 11 month investigation and claims that Huawei and ZTE could be working with the Chinese government.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

TheVerge reports that Microsoft started sending out press invitations Thursday for a Windows 8 event in New York that will start 10 a.m. on October 25th and that will launch of the Surface at midnight on October 26th. There are also rumours that select Microsoft stores will be selling the surface at midnight come launch day.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Informationweek is reporting that the new iPad mini will not have a retina display. The report goes on by stating the iPad Mini's screen will use the same liquid crystal display technology that the larger iPad does, but it won't have a resolution high enough to merit the "Retina" descriptor.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Ukrainianiphone has some alleged shots of the back casing of the upcoming iPad mini, in the photos you can see the back of unit matches with the iPhone 5` anodized aluminum and there`s a tray for the nano sim. Just like the iPhone 5 the iPad mini will also sport Apple`s new lightning connector.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Bloomberg has tweeted that Google had passed Microsoft’s total market cap for the first time ever on Monday morning, making the search and advertising company the second largest market capitalization of any tech company in the world. Google closed Monday with a market cap of $249.13 billion while Microsoft’s market cap closed at $247.23.

Squaretrade has a nice video showdown where they test the durability of both the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy SIII. A number of simple tests were performed simulating typical accidents a smartphone may encounter, including drops, submersion in water and some other mishaps.

Although nothing is confirmed CNNMoney is reporting an unnamed source is calling for Apple to send out invites on October 10th, to another event which most likely will be to unveil the iPad mini. This event should take place October 17th.

If true, the iPad mini is imminent, also hoping for an Apple TV update (bring apps to the Apple TV already!).

Thursday, September 20, 2012

This is Intel's microserver brand. It`s an Atom S processor, available three dual-core versions. The CPUs will integrate a dual-die structure with two 32 nm Saltwell cores with HyperThreading capability and clock speeds of 1.6 and 2.0 GHz.

The 1.6 GHz version will be available in S1220 and S1240 models. The S1240 TDP is 6.1 watts and the S1200 is rated at 8.1 watts. The 2 GHz model is good for 8.5 watts. Centerton processors will be Intel's first CPU in the growing micro server market.

Monday, September 17, 2012

With 8 days to go until Apple`s iPhone 5 is released lineups have already started at Apple`s flagship store in NYC. Each of the people in line Sunday were there on business promoting their companies or even their band.

EEtimes is reporting that the new processor in Apple`s iPhone 5 is indeed a Cortex A15 based processor. Fabricated by Samsung this new processor is 22% smaller than the A5 and boasts 2X the processing power and 2X more powerful GPU.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It`s official, IOS6 will be available for download on September 19. This is good news if you`re an iPhone 3GS owner, IOS 6 will still support your device. Not all of the new features of IOS 6 will make over to the 3GS, but not bad having support and updates on a 3+ year old phone.